Hey guys, rjohannsen and I had a great weekend of hunting down in SE MN!

We went out Friday and were setting up a ladder stand to put in a new spot. While we were doing that, we saw 3 does run across the cut corn field that borders our property, soon followed by two smaller bucks. Finally we got in our stands around noon, and I had two fawns come hang around right under me for 2+ hours. They bedded 10 yds from my stand for an hour, and during that time I saw a nice buck with a doe in a thicket about 100 yds away, but couldn't draw him in.

We went out again Saturday morning, and I snuck around to the other side of the thicket because the wind had shifted. I got in my stand at 7:15, nocked an arrow and grabbed my grunt call. I gave a few grunts followed by a snort wheeze. Not 5 minutes later I heard a deer and saw this buck coming straight for me from behind. He looked around a few times but kept coming. I drew back as he crossed a gully but then he stopped short of my shooting lane and worked a scrape 30 yds to my left. After holding for about two minutes he finally stepped into the lane and I double lunged him at 25 yds. He didn't go 50 yds before he crashed in the thicket behind me. It was 7:30am and I had my first archery buck down, which I figure will go about 120" or a little better.

As I sat and waited for 15 minutes to get down, two does and a smaller buck came across a field and into the woods about 50 yds behind me, stopping to smell the buck I had shot. Rjohannsen saw more does and bucks following them that evening but nothing in range. The rut is definitely getting heated up with this cold weather! Hopefully we can get him a nice buck this coming weekend! Good luck to you all!

We did have a blast that weekend! The morning was perfect when MNMaverick shot that nice 10 pointer! A well executed stand location, call and shot!! Of course he does always have to shoot them a MILE back on the property through thick woods and steep ridges! Ha. There was so much activity...and it was only beginning! Can't wait to get out Thursday a.m. and catch some monster off guard!

p.s. Unfortunately the registration stations aren't making sure the APR are being adhered too. They just register a "buck" without confirming if it has at least 4 points on one side. Bummer. I guess we all have to police ourselves and hope that others adhere to the rules!

Congrats mnmaverick! Awesome bow buck, the snort wheeze does it again, the mature boys just can't avoid a fight.
That's really bad to hear about the apr's. Once hunters catch on some will shoot what they want, but hopefully most won't, being afraid of being caught somehow.
I was out last Saturday and had a nice 6 point walk right below me, if I was still legal to take a buck with the bow and the rifle he may have got shot, but I'm glad it's only legal to take one buck.

Rick shot his deer on Tuesday (our first evening). A small limb misdirected his shot (liver/guts). We recovered him the day after...250 yards away.

I shot my deer on the last minute of the last day (Friday). MN gun season started Saturday by the way. Rick was nearby in his climber stand and got the whole thing on film! After kicking a tresspasser off the property at about 6:10pm, the buck came by my stand 20 minutes later.

My liver/lung quartering away shot with 2 blade Rage left a very unimpressive blood trail that took us 350 yards of tracking. I'm still puzzled over the lack of blood, but we got him!!